Malvern Civic Society

Each was equipped for 1,500 patients and each was staffed by up to one thousand nurses and ancillaries.

After D-Day, more than 15,000 wounded soldiers were treated in the hospitals.

They were transported by train from Southampton Docks to Malvern Wells Station from where ambulances would ferry them to the appropriate hospital.

Today, there is virtually no trace of this event except for a small number of buildings and foundations at Blackmore Park.

Yet it must have made an enormous impact on the lives of people living in the town – or did it? Few, if any, signs of this considerable increase in population exist, few, if any, books have been written on the subject, there are no American graves in the town and one never hears of any intermarriage which happened in many theatres of war.

Fran and Martin Collins came to talk to the Malvern Civic Society on Friday, June 14, about their research into the hospitals; some of the audience remembered the arrival – and departure – of the Americans and made a useful contribution to the discussion.

One question that was asked is ‘why Malvern?’– and the politically correct answer is that it had good rail facilities; the real answer is that the powers-that-be wanted to site hospitals in relatively remote areas to avoid the scale of casualties having an adverse effect on morale both in England and the States.

The hospitals were completely self-supporting and did not rely on the local community for anything – food or labour – and the staff were discouraged from fraternising.

This is the same attitude that organised the cover up when a thousand American soldiers were drowned in Lyme Bay in the months running up to D-Day; it took over 30 years for their graves to be located.

The talk was illustrated by some interesting slides and a unique movie of life in the hospital camps; in spite of the large number of casualties treated in Malvern after D-Day and in the rest of the European theatre up to the end of the war, there were other large hospital sites in other parts of the country and the research continues.

The next monthly meeting of the Society will be on Friday, July 12, when Phil Rickman, local author, will be giving the inaugural lecture of Civic Week (July 13–20).

Mr Rickman, the author of several supernatural and mystery novels, also writes and presents radio features including the book programme Phil the Shelf on BBC Radio Wales.

One of his novels, Remains of an Altar, is set in the Malvern area. All of his books are obtainable from Malvern Library.

Chairman Roger Sutton encouraged members to attend the lectures, walks and talks during Civic Week; a large number of the audience shared refreshments and Angie’s cake while looking at some of the Collins memorabilia.